Med schools for Psychiatry

[Whitney]

Hi all. I am applying to medical schools this summer and I'm interested in psychiatry (psychotherapy especially). I was wondering if people could offer their thoughts and recommendations on particular medical schools and their programs. (ANY THOUGHTS AT ALL WOULD BE APPRECIATED.)

(Relevant info: I'm a pretty competitive applicant; I live in New York but am willing to move anywhere for the right program.)

Thanks!

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[maoeris]

You do not specilaize in medical school for psychiatry. Just choose a program that is competitive, and you may want an urban area when you do your rotations so you will see more types of cases. Also if you are interested in research make sure the school has a decent psychiatry/neuroscience program so you can find a mentor and do research. Residency is when you specialize and by then you should have a better idea of what programs are competitive.

 

[Thewonderer]

You do not specilaize in medical school for psychiatry. Just choose a program that is competitive.

Agree with above.

Right now, however, you might think that you don't mind moving to any part of the country for medical school, you should realize that most people do stay in the same region for residency as they do for medical school. So say, if you do not want to ever live in the South or the Midwest, then don't go there for medical school.

with a strong interest in psychotherapy, you might want to go to medical schools in the NYC area, especially Columbia, Cornell and NYU. Cambridge Hospital near Boston is also very psychotheray-heavy but I am not sure if you can request to rotate through there as a medical student at Harvard. Stay away from Hopkins which is very biological. That's pretty much it in terms of my advice.

There is a big chance that during medical school, you will change your mind and won't want to be a psychiatrist at all!

good luck!

 

[Whitney]

Thanks Wonderer and Maoeris. Sounds like great advice...I did plan on applying to most all NYC schools.

A couple of more questions....Do you all have any impression of Downstate that you could share. Of course it's in an urban setting and is attractive because of the low tuition. Also, are there any electives that you found to be particularly important or that you wish your school had offered?

Thanks again...

 

[yeti00]

The med school that you choose does and doesn't matter for going into psychiatry. In the end, it matters that you get a quality education. But, on the other side of the coin, in residency matching, it helps to have exposure in the field that you want to go into. And it definitely helps to do research or have clinical experience at the sites where you might want to end up for residency. When I was choosing med schools, I looked at a lot of factors, but at the top of my list was the strength of the research and mentorship in child psychiatry.

 

[kerimwedding]

U. Maryland has an amazing program for those students interested in Psych from the get go. ...... it has this program that's been around for about 30 years, only one of its kind in the nation --- called CAPP (Combined Accelerated Program in Psychiatry)..... it's awesome...... granted, you have extra seminars to attend your first two years, but you get to handle your own psychotherapy patients as a second year, you do your 3rd year psych rotation for 8 weeks the summer between 1st and 2nd year (get paid and get the credit -- nice deal), you get to do an elective in whatever during your normal 3rd year psych time, given 2 months of elective credit during 4th year just by being in the program..... overall, can't beat Maryland's program

 

[PublicHealth]

U. Maryland has an amazing program for those students interested in Psych from the get go. ...... it has this program that's been around for about 30 years, only one of its kind in the nation --- called CAPP (Combined Accelerated Program in Psychiatry)..... it's awesome...... granted, you have extra seminars to attend your first two years, but you get to handle your own psychotherapy patients as a second year, you do your 3rd year psych rotation for 8 weeks the summer between 1st and 2nd year (get paid and get the credit -- nice deal), you get to do an elective in whatever during your normal 3rd year psych time, given 2 months of elective credit during 4th year just by being in the program..... overall, can't beat Maryland's program

Wow! This sounds great. Is there a website that describes this program? Do you have any idea how admission to this program works?

 

[kerimwedding]

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/37/11/7 (scroll to bottom of article)

http://www.umm.edu/psych_intern/settings.html

http://medschool.umaryland.edu/Psychiatry/Education.asp


I am in the last year of the program..... we had 11 spots available, about 35-40 people from the class applied in the first month of the first year of medical school..... interview process, etc.

 

[gaki]

Hello,

I am a little confused about the structure in Maryland's program.. what is the relationship of the things on this page: http://medschool.umaryland.edu/Psychiatry/Education.asp to the things on this page:
http://www.umm.edu/psych_intern/description.html and this page:
http://www.umm.edu/psych_intern/eligibility.html

It looks like one is for undergraduate freshmen? how do you get into that program? does it feed into the other programs?

I'm so confused.

 

[kerimwedding]

One is for PSYCHIATRY, which one does after medical school..... the other is for PSYCHOLOGY